With instrumentation that can be as spare as a saxophone/bass/drums trio or as large as a modern classical orchestra, the sound of the band is somewhat dependent upon their membership on any given night, but typically in a creative category all its own. Formed under the singer/songwriter leadership of Danny W. Leo, the Holy Childhood first came into existence as a 4-track mix tape project: something else one of the many the bands Leo drummed for in the 90's (Native Nod, Radio to Saturn, Sin-Eaters, and others) could sell at the merch table. The live band recorded their first full-length record, Up With What I'm Down With, in 1999 with Nicholas Vernhes at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, NY. That album was released on Gern Blandsten Records and it showcased Leo's creative use of vocal melodies and Motown-influenced instrumentation along side Paul Curreri's transcendental bar room piano sprawl, and inspired playing by Peter Kerlin, Sherry Beth Sacks, Andy Reuland, Gibb Slife, Andrew Barker and others. The Holy Childhood doesn't release commercial albums often, following Up With What I'm Down With 8 years later with 2007's unclassifiable cult odyssey, Love to Happen. They reemerge periodically in unexpected live iterations. Highly Recommended.